Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

How to get Firefox to find the profile?

Firefox will not open saying it can't find the profile. There is a profile in the Application Support folder and old ones on the desktop. I followed the directions to access the profile manager through Terminal, but it didn't work. This Firefox Application is one I restored from Time Machine. I got into this problem when I tried to update Firefox. My MacOS system does not meet the requirements to install the latest Firefox. Apparently, my former Firefox got uninstalled in the effort to install the latest version.

Firefox will not open saying it can't find the profile. There is a profile in the Application Support folder and old ones on the desktop. I followed the directions to access the profile manager through Terminal, but it didn't work. This Firefox Application is one I restored from Time Machine. I got into this problem when I tried to update Firefox. My MacOS system does not meet the requirements to install the latest Firefox. Apparently, my former Firefox got uninstalled in the effort to install the latest version.

Chosen solution

I think you probably already know this part, but just in case:

The last version of Firefox for Mac OS 10.11 is the Extended Support Release of Firefox 78, which is pretty close to retirement. You can still get it from the following page -- make sure to choose 78.15.0esr and not the newer one.

https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/#product-desktop-esr

References:


rdservants said

There is a profile in the Application Support folder and old ones on the desktop.

Firefox is looking for a specific named profile. That path is listed in the install.ini and profiles.ini files. I don't have a Mac to confirm, but I think those would be under ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox

What did you try here:

rdservants said

I followed the directions to access the profile manager through Terminal, but it didn't work.

The Profile Manager should show the list of profiles from those files, but since the current default profile isn't at the saved path, you can't launch Firefox using that profile. However, can create a new profile to get up and running with Firefox again. Then we can discuss migrating data.

Refs.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (1)

Chosen Solution

I think you probably already know this part, but just in case:

The last version of Firefox for Mac OS 10.11 is the Extended Support Release of Firefox 78, which is pretty close to retirement. You can still get it from the following page -- make sure to choose 78.15.0esr and not the newer one.

https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/#product-desktop-esr

References:


rdservants said

There is a profile in the Application Support folder and old ones on the desktop.

Firefox is looking for a specific named profile. That path is listed in the install.ini and profiles.ini files. I don't have a Mac to confirm, but I think those would be under ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox

What did you try here:

rdservants said

I followed the directions to access the profile manager through Terminal, but it didn't work.

The Profile Manager should show the list of profiles from those files, but since the current default profile isn't at the saved path, you can't launch Firefox using that profile. However, can create a new profile to get up and running with Firefox again. Then we can discuss migrating data.

Refs.